Carol Shea-Porter Likes Israel… Not That Much, Actually

While looking at something else, I noticed that
my own CongressCritter, Carol Shea-Porter, was
one of only (by my count) 58 candidates explicitly endorsed
by the "J Street PAC".

J Street sounds innocuous enough. It bills itself on its front page as the "political home for
pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans". And who's not for peace?

But in practice, behind the soothing slogans, J Street
is mostly in favor of US pressure on Israel to concede,
concede, concede. While billing itself as "pro-Israel",
it in practice opposes most of what Israel actually
does in order to defend itself from its enemies.
Last year, Noah Pollak wrote in Commentary:

In order to transform relations between the U.S. and Israel, J Street
intends to provide political cover for an American campaign to pressure
the Israeli government into making more concessions for the sake of what
it believes will be peace. In his op-eds and speeches, [J Street founder
Jeremy] Ben-Ami
frequently cites his family's history in Israel as evidence of the depth
of his commitment to the Jewish state, but he nonetheless considers the
sovereign nation incapable of making healthy decisions for itself.

Pollak's article is a pretty good outline of where J Street is
on the ideological map: waaay off to the left.

I also noticed this
pro-Israel letter, addressed to President Obama, recently gathering
signatures in the House of Representatives. Written in response to
the "Gaza flotilla incident," it expresses
"strong support for Israel's right to defend itself." It urges that the
President use "U. S. influence and, if necessary, veto power to prevent
any biased or one-sided resolutions from passing" the United Nations
Security Council. It asked that efforts be made to "focus the
international community on the crimes of the Iran-backed Hamas
leadership against Israel and the Palestinian people."

The letter was advocated by the primary American Jewish lobby group
AIPAC.
J Street, on the other hand, urged that
Congressmen and Senators not sign it.

As it happens (as I type) the House version of the letter garnered
338
signatures, nearly four-fifths of the current membership.
Conspicuously absent from the signatory list: Carol Shea-Porter.

Hm.

I am (relatively) sure that Congresswoman Carol is not fueled
by anti-semitism. She's unlikely to start sounding
like Pat
Buchanan, entertaining as that might be.
I would bet if someone posed her the question
that sent Helen Thomas into her too-belated retirement, she'd
give a more acceptable answer.

But, from the above facts,
she's apparently pretty far out of the mainstream on the Israel issue.
It would be nice if, sometime in the next (say) 126 days or so,
someone would nail that down.

[I should also note that our state's retiring Senator, Judd Gregg,
has not signed
the Senate
version of the letter. 87 Senators have done so, which means only
12 (living) Senators haven't. This guy did the math
to determine that only two GOP Senators didn't sign: Gregg and Bunning
of Kentucky, also retiring. So what's up with that, Judd?]

Homicide

This 1991 David Mamet movie was recently given the "Criterion Collection" DVD
treatment, and I realized that I'd never gotten around to seeing it.
And Netflix sent the Criterion DVD, all the better.
(They don't always do that—they're expensive.)

Joe Mantegna plays Bobby Gold, a detective on the homicide squad of a
decaying city. (Unnamed, but it was filmed in Baltimore.) He and his
co-workers are asked to pick up the pieces of a botched FBI drug raid
during which a bunch of people were killed and the targeted drug dealer
escaped.

Bobby and his partner (William H. Macy) are off on their dragnet
when, by sheerest coincidence, Bobby gets roped into
investigating the murder of an elderly Jewish woman, shot while
defending her variety store in the middle of a nasty ghetto,
full of anti-semitism. Was it a simple robbery gone wrong, or
was the victim the target of a neo-Nazi conspiracy,
due to her militant Zionist past?
Bobby initially resists
the temptations of Jewish solidarity, but eventually succumbs.
This works out poorly for everyone.

It's a Mamet movie, so nearly everyone is colorfully foulmouthed
and non-PC,
spouting intricately-constructed
dialog you'd never hear in real life. Mantegna
gives (probably) the acting performance of his life (so far).

The DVD looks great. Extras:
modern-day interviews with a few cast members,
including Mantegna, and a gag reel. There was also a commentary
from Mamet and Macy, which I didn't listen to.

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